MULTI PARTY SYSTEM AND DEMOCRATICE PROCEESES IN NIGERIA: A STUDY OF THE FOURTH REPUBLIC

MULTI PARTY SYSTEM AND DEMOCRATICE PROCEESES IN NIGERIA: A STUDY OF THE FOURTH REPUBLIC

CHAPTER ONE
INRODUCTION
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Over the years Nigeria has experienced great change in terms of development in her political system right from the time of fight and struggle for political independence around in the late 1940s; the nationalist as at that then were still at the pre-independence and post-independence periods. Take the pre-independence and the post-independence periods for instance, the political parties in Nigeria were not ideologically based; instead they were regionally based and kind of woven around individual politicians who most of them saw as their mentors. However in the last 10 years the parties were registered based on the exigencies of the time; this scenario was ongoing until 1998 when the need for parties that could bring Nigeria into a new era of democracy after over a long time of fifteen years of military rule.
History has it that the political parties in Nigeria have developed, playing a vital role towards the realization of the democratic goals. It is evident that the last fifteen years have seen an evolution of various political parties ranging from 1991 to 1993. They are two main kind of party system practiced in Nigeria with the government establishing the Social Democratic party (SDP) and National Republican Convention (NRC).
The military government later proscribed the parties after the annulment of the presidential election back in 1993; however Nigeria returned to democratic rule in 1999; the restoration of the democratic government as at 1999 led to another method to part politics in Nigeria; during this period the liberalization for the registration of political parties evolved opening up the political space for mass participation in political activities in Nigeria.
The saw to the proliferation of registered political parties in Nigeria ranging between 50 to 100 although some of them have really being unlucky in terms of winning the election; the few political parties that have dominated the political space to the point that fears are being expressed that the country was drifting towards a one-party state. Opposition parties are beginning to cross to the ruling party both at the federal and states levels.

MULTI PARTY SYSTEM AND DEMOCRATICE PROCEESES IN NIGERIA: A STUDY OF THE FOURTH REPUBLIC